Revelation of St. John tells us that by the Fire and Smoak and Brimstone which in that place are said to have issued out of the Mouths of the Horses are to be understood our Powder and Guns now in use and that of them St. John prophesied But how these are said to issue out of the Mouths of Horses he doth not well express nor I think well understood The Common Opinion then is that this device was first found out by a Monk of Germany whose name many Writers affirm to be deservedly lost but Forcatulus in his fourth book of the Empire and Phylosophy of France names him Berthold Swartes of Cullen and Salmuch Constantine Anklitzen of Friburg Howsoever they all agree that he was a German Monk and that by chance a spark of Fire falling into a pot of Niter which he had prepared for Physick or Alchimy and causing it to fly up he thereupon made a Composition of Powder with an Instrument of Brass or Iron and putting the fire to it found the Conclusion to answer his Expectation The first publick use of Guns that we read of was thought to be about the year 1380. as Magius or 1400 as Ramus in a battel betwixt the Venetians and Genoways fought at Clodia Fossa in which the Venetians having from the Monk belike gotten the use of Guns so galled their Enemies that they saw themselves wounded and slain and yet knew not by what means nor how to prevent it as Platina witnesseth in the Life of Vrbane the sixth And Levalla in his second Book and 34th chapter of his Ellegancies which as himself testifies he wrote in the year 1438. says that the Gun grew in use not long before his time his Words are Nuper inventa est Machina quam Bombardum vocant The Engine which they call the Gun was lately found out And Petarch who lived some time before him to the like purpose in his 99th Dialogue of his Remedies of both Fortunes though therein I confess he seem to cross himself Erat hac pestis nuper rara ut cum ingenti Miraculo cerneretur This pestilent device was lately so rare that it was beheld with marvellous great Astonishment Yet 〈◊〉 have seen the Copy of a Record that great Ordinancâ— were brought by the French to the battery of a Castlâ— or Fort called Outhwyke near to Callico and then in the possession of the English the first year of Richard the Second of which Fort one William Weston was Captain and being questioned in Parliament for yielding up the Fort he did in his excuse alledge that the Enemies brought to the Battery thereof nine pieces des grosses Canons par les quelles les mures les Measons da dit Chastel Junen rentes percusses en plusiens Lieux of great Canons by means whereof the Walls and Houses of the said Castle were in divers places rent in sunder sorely battered and in another place he termeth them huge most grievous admirable Ordinance nay more then so I am credibly informed that a Commission is to be seen for making of Salt-Peter in Edward the thirds time and another Record of Ordinance used at that time some twenty years before his Death by all which it should appear that either the Invention of Guns was sooner than it was commonly conceived or that our Nation and the French had the use of it with the first Howsoever it is most clear that at least-wise in these parts of the World this Invention was not known till in latter Ages But to continue our discourse of Engines and ingenious Inventions used and invented for the Glory of God against the Tyranny of Turks and Infidels for the Defence of his People we may rightly say of them that they were the Gifts of God as were the Inventions or Art of them that either builded the Temple of Jerusalem or the Ark of God And yet is it there written of these Artificers that God gave them the Spirit of Knowledge and cunning in such Arts. And therefore I think it may be also said without offence that the Knowledge of Archimedes and other men of such commendable Inventions are the Gifts of God free and not bound to any Nation or Person Besion that excellent Geometrician of our late times who was master of the Engines to the French King Pubâ—ished a book in Print concerning the Forms and Pourâ—raicture of sixty Engines of marvellous strange and â—rofitable device for divers commodious and necessary â—ses of which forasmuch as three of them that is to â—ay the ' 54 57 and 60. are Engines chiefly pertaining to Ships I shall in their due place discourse of them My next design shall be to treat of the Proportions of Local Motions wherein to the most expert in Learning I shall shew the Errors of Aristotle by Words and Demonstrations and that modestly for I repute Aristotle for the chief of Philosophers Yet for that it is â—umane to err he also might sometimes fail In the handling of which Demonstrations I shall not so apply â—y self to Philosophers as not to descend so as to inform the Marriner that he may learn many proper Conclusions from thence most necessary for his Knowâ—edge and afterwards proceed to other rare Matheâ—atical Secrets of other Engines and of the most swift Motion by the Art of Navigation I will now make Demonstration how Bodies of the self-same or one kind and Figure equal or unequal one to the other in the same midst or mean by equal spaâ—â— be moved in one or self-some-time the which is against Aristotle and all other Philosophers that have not yet seen this Proposition Aristotle first in the 4th of his Phisickes Cap. de Vacuo where he intendeth to shew that if Vacuum or Void be granted Moving or Motion is taken away c. He there saith thus We see those Bodies which have more Heaviness or Lightness So that they be one Figure to be more swiftly moved by equal space and by such proportion as they have the one to the other And therefore they are so moved per Vacuum c. which is proved to be false Furthermore what St. Thomas Aquinas saith touching this any man that will may read for no man better understood the mind of Aristotle But for the Examples that Simplicius and Averroes give to the understanding of this by two Spherical Bodies of equal Quantity but of divers kinds as one of Gold and the other of Silver we must not therefore say that he understood this Proposition as I will demonstrate For they should have said somwhat of the Equality of the Quantity of those Bodies forasmuch as the Motion of Bodies equal and unequal is all one so that they be all one Figure As for Example If there be three Spherical Bodies of the which two are of Gold and the third Silver and they of the Gold are unequal and the other of Silver equal to one of the Golden Bodies then in the same Proportion of time
join B C by a Line then by 4. of the first the Triangle B H C shall be equal to the Triangle F S G and shall be equal to the Portion F N G by the 17. of Archimedes de Quadratura Parabolae by the help of the first Conception of Euclide I do the like of the Portion of F G X to whom by an equal Triangle O P K then I draw P Q equally distant O K and R V equally distant O P by 31 of the first of Euclide then by 41. of the same O P R shall be half of the Superficies O V. Now then I somewhat portract C H then upon B H I constitute a Superficial of equidistant sides having an Angle of B H A by 44. of the first of Euclide twice assumpt to the Diameter of the first Superficies A P B then by 41. of the same by the first conception of the Trigon A B C shall be equal of the Superficies F G N X. granted which is the intent Aristotle to say the Truth was an excellent searcher of things yet I will not say as some say which have never read the the Works of Aristotle or understand them not that every Word of Aristotle is almost a Sentence and that Aristotle was the God of Phylosophers and that he never erred in one Word but was divine in all things Such miserable men if they knew what it were to speak with Demonstration and what by Experience to the Sense would never have said such things For Sense simply in those things which are not properly sensible we are oftentimes deceived And whereas we cannot perceive the Deception by the Mean of that simple sense then it seemeth to us that the thing cannot be and that it is not in very Deed as it appeareth to the sense As for Example who is he that thinking not a Reflex Form on the Superficial Water immovable to be seen of the same greatness as is by a right Longitude by the mean of a Diaphane gathered of a Radical Line incident and Reflex whereas this is false by G D of the 6 of Vitellio For the Superfities of the Water is Spherical as sheweth Aristotle 2 de Câ—â—lo cap. 4. But better Archimedes in the second Proposition De subsidentibus aquae And therefore when any Star appeareth to us above the Horizon yet is it not indeed as it appeareth by this Demonstration Let the Star be I the Horizon R A T the Earth E A M. whose Center is A and the sight G the Vapours O E then whereas the radical Line passing from any rare thin or transparent in any transparent of more thickness maketh a Perpendicular by the 45. of the Second of Vitellio it is manifest therefore that the Star I to be seen by the Line I D E which Line shall be crooked because that simple Air is thinner then Vapours and Fire thinner then Air. Also the matter or substance of Heaven is thinner then Fire by the 50. of the 10 of Vitellio Furthermore the higher part of the Air is thinner then the lower part the same I say also of Water and Fire if we may call Fire the highest part of the body and near unto the concavity of the Moon and of every Superior part of Elements And so the Star by the Line D E seemeth to be above the Horizon in the point V. But Vitellio also in his 10 Book in the Proposition 49. teacheth perspectively and how it may be instrumentally proved how the Stars may be seen in the Horizon without their proper places by reason of Incurnation or crooking of the Beams whereof it followeth that they do not Mathematically define the Horizon which say it is the Terminer or ender of the sight and of the greatest Circles of the Sphere whereas by the Demonstration before the Circle ending of the sight is cutting the Sphere in two unequal Portions and that the higher Portion be greater then the lower For if the Horizon be the ender of the sight and one of the greatest Circles then the Earth is not equally about the Center or middle of the World or else the middle of the World is without the Earth But if the Earth doth equally compass about the middle ergo the ender of the sight is not of the greatest Circles in the Sphere or contrarity Therefore if we shall see any Star above the ender of the sight we should not therefore think it to be in the twelfth station of Heaven this is to be understood by reasonable manner for the Virtue of the Star appeareth chiefly in the great Circle whose Pole is Zenith passing by the 90 Degree of the Equinoctial from the Intersection or dividing of the same with the Meridian toward the East Furthermore the difference between the ender of the sight and the greater Circle is not only one Diameter of the Star but of Degrees which if it were not we could by no means use the Proposition 49 of Vitellio and therefore it was no small Error of them that said that the Horizon is the ender of the fight and one of the greatest Circles in the Sphere and that ever the middle of Heaven appeareth unto us for evermore then half appeareth unto us for the Incurvation or crooking of the Beams But he that will see more Examples of these things let him read the 4th Book of Vitellio and the Tenth and in some parts the Second and 5th of the same in all of which he shall see somewhat how easily we may be deceived by this sense but the like of other Senses is not to be doubted Therefore not without weak and slender judgment they call Aristotle so Divine a Prince of Phylosophy and Divine Peter Arches did very wisely give Commendation to Aristotle proportionally and no further but only to God forasmuch as it is humane to err Aristotle also might sometime fail We having thus throughly discoursed of Proportions Local we shall now next fall upon the swift Motion by the Art of Navigation which will occasion us to traverse many rare Mathematical Secrets This most swift Motion to the common sort of men seemeth incredible for that the same may be done by sailing in a Ship or other Vessell against whatsoever course of any Outragious Flood or River and against the most furious Winds whatsoever they are even also in the deepest Winter and greatest Sourges of Water Neither is it strange if it be incredible to the unexpert For the common people count that for a Miracle which the expert Mathematicians know to be natural and easie for if it should be propounded to the ignorant people that any man might in the midst of the Waters and Floods descend to the bottom of the River Rhene his Apparel remaining dry and no part of Body wet and also to bring with him burning fire from the bottom of the Water it should seem to them to be ridiculous and an impossibility Which nevertheless in the year 1538. in Toleto a City
Which having flown a perfect round about With wearied Wings return'd unto her Master And as judicious on his Arm he plac'd her O Divine Wit that in the narrow Womb Of a small Fly couldst find sufficient room For all those Springs Wheels counterpoise and Chains Which stood instead of Life and Spur and Rheins Desimanus itaque Architas columbam mirari cum muscam cum aquilam Geometricis alis alatum Norsbergea exhibeat saith Ramus let us give over to wonder at Architus his Dove fâ—ithence Norimburgh hath exhibited both a Fly and an Eagle winged with Geometrical Wings Bartas likewise remembers the curious Dial and Clock at Stransburgh my self have beheld not without Admiration But who would think that mortal hands could mould New Heavens new Stars whose whirling courses should With constant windings through contrary ways Mark the true monds of years and months and days Yet 't is a story that hath oft been heard And by a hundred witnesses averr'd Neither doth he forget the most excellent Silver Sphere matchable with Archimedes or that of the Zapores King of Persia which was sent as a present by the Emperour Ferdinand to Solyman the Great Turk and is mentioned by Paulus Jovius and Sabellicus it was carried as they write by twelve men unframed and reframed in the Grand-Seigniors Presence by the maker who likewise delivered him a Book containing the Mystery of using it Nor may we smoother or forget ingrately The Heaven of Silver that was sent but lately From Ferdinando as a famous Work Unto Byzantium to the greatest Turk Wherein a Spirit still moving to and fro Made all the Engine orderly to go And tho' the one Sphere did always slowly slide and contrary the other swiftly glide Yet still their Stars kept all their courses even With the true courses of the Stars of Heaven The Sun there shifting in the Zodiack His shining houses never did forsake His pointed Path there in a Month his Sister Fulfil'd her course and changing of 't her Lustre And form of Face now larger lesser soon Followed the changes of the other Moon So that which way soever we turn our Eyes we may see that Posterity hath not riotously wasted the Inheritance of Arts and Sciences left them by their Predecessors but have greatly increased the same and invented others for certainly the multitude of things incomprehensible is infinite and so therefore inventions must needs also be infinite and without end like tunes in the Art of Musick And forasmuch as I have made mention of sundry Inventions it shall not be from the purpose to describe the goodly Instrument whereof Angelus Politianus in his fourth Book of Epistles to Franciscus Caso where he writeth in this manner I have received your Epistle wherein you signify to me that you have heard of the strange Engine or Instrument Antomatan invented and made of late by one Lawrence a Florentine in the which is expressed the course and motions of the Planets conformable and agreeable with the motions of Heaven and forasmuch saith he as the report thereof is hardly believed you greatly desire that I should write to you what certain Knowledge I have of that thing wherein I am ready to obey your Request And altho' now it be long since I saw it yet as far as I bear in memory I will briefly express to you the Form Reason and Use thereof And if the Description thereof shall seem to you to be somewhat obscure you shall not ascribe it altogether to my Declaration but partly to the subtlety and Novelty of the thing It is in form of a square Pillar sharp towards the top in the manner of a Pyramidis of height almost three Cubits over and above it in manner of a baner is a flat or plain round of guilded Copper adorned with sundry Colours on whose other part is expressed the whole course of the Planets and whole Dimension or Measure is somewhat shorter then a Cubit and is within turned and moved with certain little Denticle Wheels an immoveable Circle comprehending the highest Border or Margent divided with the spaces of 24 hours within it in the highest turning Roundel the twelve signs are discerned by three Degrees Further within are seen eight Rundels in manner of one greatness of these two obtain the middle point the one fastened in the other so that the lowest being somewhat bigger representeth the Sun and the higher the Moon From the Sun a beam coming to the circle sheweth in it the hours and in the Zodiaâ—k the Months days and number of Degrees and also the true and half Motion of the Sun From the Moon also proceedeth a Pin or â—â—yer which beneath or downward in the Border or Margent of the greatest Rundel sheweth the hours and passing by the Center of the Epicide of the Moon and extending to the Zodiack sheweth the half Motion of his Planet Another also rising from thence and cutting the border of the Center of the Moon that is of the Epicide sheweth her true place whereby are seen the slowness swiftness all Motions and Courses Conjunctions also and full Moons About these are six other Rundels of the which one whom they call the Head and Tail of the Dragon sheweth the Ecclipses both of the Sun and the Moon The other are attributed to the Planets from every one of which proceed two points assigning the Motions as we have said of the Moon but they also go backward which chanceth not in the Moon whose Ecclipse is moved contrariwise And thus the reason of Conjunctions Departings and Latitudes is manifest in all There is also another Border likewise to the Zodiack cutting or dividing upward or above those six little Rundels of the Planets whereby appeareth the Degrees of the East signs and the spaces of the days that is to say at what hour the Sun riseth by the which every one of the Planets are carried in their Rundels or Circles by course in the day-time to the East and in the Night to the West Again contrariwise the greatest Rundel of all draweth with it all the Planets in the Night to the East and in the day to the West in the space of 24 hours All which to agree with the Motions of the Heavens both Reason and Experience do confirm and therefore we ought not to marvel if these things seem incredible to many For as saith the wise Proverb Faith is slowly given to great things for even we scarcely believe our own Eyes when we see such things And therefore whereas in time past I read that such a like Instrument was made by Archimedes my Faith yet failed to give Credit to so great an Author which thing nevertheless this our Florentine hath performed The work doubtless being of such an Excellence that all praise is inferiour to it and cannot otherwise for the worthiness thereof be otherwise praised then to say that it is above all praise insomuch that he may seem a man sent from Heaven where he learnt the
making of this Heaven Hitherto Politianus Of the like Instrument Roger Bacon maketh mention affirming the same to be worth a Kingdom to a wise man But forasmuch as the Subject I have discoursed of is chiefly touching Inventions appertaining to Ships and the Art of Navigation I shall here think it fit to say something of the Invention of a certain Italian Writer Leonardo Fiorauanti who in his Book Intituled Specchio di Scientia Vniversale doth greatly glory in the Invention of Ships which cannot perish either on the Sea or the Land affirming the like was neuer invented since the Creation of the World But I fear least his vain Glory of discoursing in the Italian Tongue hath caused him more then needs to commend his own invention Therefore commiting the judgment hereof to men of greater Experience and Knowledge in these things I will only translate his Words whereby in the book before-named he describeth the same Ship in this manner Take Beams of Fur or Pine-tree which of their own nature can never sink or go down or remain under the Water and with these Beams frame an Engine or Machine of the length of threescore foot and of the height of six foot and of the breadth of twenty foot laying the first rank in length fashioning the fore-part like unto other Ships and in like manner bringing the poop or hinder part to good Form then with such Irons as appertain bind it and strengthen it in such manner as it cannot break And upon this Frame or Foundation build your Ship of such fashion as you think best c. But whether the Frame or Foundation should be builded upon the Keel or bottom of the Ship or otherwise as I have said I must commit it to them of better judgment But least I should be unmindful of my Promise concerning the rare Geometrician Beson that caused a book to be Printed containing the Forms and Portracts of 60 Engines of marvellous strange and profitable Device of which I only mentioned three forasmuch as they chiefly appertain to Ships viz. the 54 57 60. I shall here make a brief Rehersal of them the 54 therefore as he writeth is an Engine not unlike to that which Archimedes in former time invented for the Syracusians wherewith a man with the strength of only one hand by help of the Instrument called Trispacton which in our Tongue some call an endless scrue brought a Ship of marvellous greatness from the Land into the the Sea in the sight of King Hieron and an infinite Multitude which with all their force could not do the same c. Of which also our Countrey-man Roger Bacon a great Philosopher seemed to have had some Knowledge he making mention of an Instrument no bigger then a mans body wherewith one man might draw to him the strength of three hundred men And when I was in France I heard credibly reported that an Almain made an Engine where with one at 15 years of Age lifted from the ground a weight which the strongest man in the Court was not able to remove Almost the same device we see in the bending of a Cross-bow Also at my being in Germany in the City of Strasburgh a worthy Gentleman Monsieur de Saleno told me that in that City one had invented an Engine of Iron no bigger than a mans hand whereunto fastening a Rope with a hook of Iron no bigger than a mans head and casting the hook upon a Wall Tree or other place where it might take hold he could with that Engine lift himself up to the Wall or other places But to return to the other two Engines of Beson pertaining to our purpose The 60 Figure as he there writeth is the Invention of an Engine scarcely credible wherewith by Ballance and easie Motion beyond the order of Nature a Ship ma be ordered and governed that in the â—alm Sea it shall move forwards and in little Wind hasten the course and in too much Wind temper and moderate the same a Secret as he saith worth the Knowledge of a Prince Of the third Engine which is the 57 of his Book he writeth thus an Artifice not yet divulged or set forth which placed in the poop of a Ship whither the Water hath Recourse and moved by the Motion of the Ship with Wheels and Weights doth exactly shew what space the Ship hath gone c. by which Description some do understand that the Knowledge of the Longitude might so be found a thing doubtless greatly to be desired and hitherto not certainly known altho' Sebastian Cabot on his Death-bed told me he had the Knowledge of the same by Divine Revelation yet so that he might not teach any Man But I think that the good old man in his extream Age somewhat doted and had not yet even in the Article of Death utterly shaken off all worldly vain Glory As touching which Knowledge of the Longitude to speak a little more by occasion now given it shall not be from the purpose for to rehearse the Words of that Excellent Learned man Joannes Fernelius in his incomparable Book de abditis rerum causis where in his Preface to King Henry of France he writeth thus we have put our helping hand to the Art of Navigation and Geography for by the Observation of the hours of the Equinoctials we have invented how in whatsoever Region or place of the World a man shall be he may know in what Longitude it is which certainly we have not taken from the Fountains of the Ancients but first of all as I think have drawn it out of our own Rivers as our own Invention I shall conclude as I said before that which way soever we turn our Eyes we may see that Posterity hath not riotously wasted the Inheritance of Arts and Sciences left them by their Predecessors but have greatly improved and increase the same and also invented others FINIS